Years Gone By, a Pride and Prejudice Story
by Torra Jhed
Summary: It has been years since Lizzie and Darcy found matrimonial happiness. Life flows, offering with it the happiness and sorrow. The Wickhams left England to make their fortunes in India. What of their daughter, Emmeline? Is she doomed to repeat their mistakes? Can Darcy allow a Wickham to live in his household? - A story idea that was getting in the way of other writing.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note and Disclaimers: This little story started niggling at me days ago when I was attempting to write for one of my other open pieces and would not leave me alone. Now I'm inflicting it upon you all. :)**

**Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is not mine (duh) but as it is in the public domain, I feel little shame in playing with the characters. Heck, I feel little shame in playing with the characters that are still under copyright so why should this be any different.  
**

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Darcy and Bingley waited patiently at the dock in London for the arrival of the ship from India that brought with it their niece, Emmeline Wickham. The prospect gave neither man any particular pleasure as the Wickhams had abused their hospitalities greatly in earlier years. Of course, that had all been well before they went to India. Wickham had, by some fashion, come into possession of a plantation in the far off country and left with his wife to make their fortune.

It was about a year afterward that they sent news that they were the proud parents of a daughter and, though the delivery was difficult, both mother and child were in good health. Then the very sad news came only a short time later that Mrs. Wickham had fallen ill and never recovered. She died just after her daughter's first birthday.

Then, in the spring, the families received word that Wickham had also died, leaving their four year old daughter entirely orphaned. A flurry of letters passed amongst the many family members as to the child's future and who would bear the responsibility of having her under their roof.

Mr. Bennet, who had surprised all by outliving his wife, was unable to take her as his advanced age was not conducive to raising a young child. Mary and her husband Robert Jones, a clerk under her Uncle Phillips, were newly married and not in a financial way to take on a child. Kitty and her husband, a clergyman in Meryton, were preparing for the birth of their own first child, and Jane and Bingley had three boys of their own already. In the end, it was Darcy and Elizabeth who had the means to see the girl taken in. They had only one son, Bennet, and he was away at school much of the time.

Darcy had been forced to recant his earlier assertions that no Wickham would ever be permitted under the roof of Pemberly as his wife would not allow him to shuffle the girl off to a nurse and leave her in London.

"She has lost her parents already, Fitzwilliam," she said gently. "It would be cruel to leave her with no familial connection at all. Besides, Emmeline is only a very small child and unlikely to bear any manners which, with influence, cannot be corrected."

As he had no argument against his wife's logic, he conceded that she might be welcome as long as she was sensible and could be properly trained in behavior and deportment. Elizabeth knew that this was as much concession as she was likely to get until he met the child, whom Elizabeth could not conceive of being as silly or bad as her parents had been in life because Lydia had not been so when she was very small. As a child, she had shown the potential to be witty and, had she not been allowed to be idle and silly, should have been very clever indeed.

The ship finally docked and both Darcy and Bingley got a look at the child, who was standing on deck watching the procedure with interest. The nurse who had been sent with her was close at hand to ensure her young charge's safety though it did not seem that she was pleased with being on deck. Emmeline had hair as dark as her mother's and blue eyes that peered out beneath her black crepe bonnet with curiousness and an intelligence that struck her a fully different look than the mother she so resembled. It seemed unnatural to see so young a girl in mourning but it was the custom and was observed correctly. Elizabeth had been right in one thing. His heart could not remain cold once he laid eyes upon the very small child.

Once the nurse and child were at the bottom of the gangplank, Darcy approached with Bingley. The nurse was a thin woman bearing a severe countenance that seemed to take no pleasure in either her charge nor surroundings.

"This is Miss Wickham, I take it?" Darcy asked.

"This is she, Sir," the nurse replied and Emmeline gave a small curtsey to the two gentlemen.

Bingley knelt down to eye level with the small girl and smiled. "Hello, Emmeline. I am your Uncle Bingley and this tall fellow is your Uncle Darcy. Welcome to England."

"Thank you, Uncle," Emmeline replied softly as she extended her hand, tentatively. "It is my great honor to meet you."

"She acts the grand lady for all her lack of size and not to be dissuaded from it," the nurse reported somewhat sourly. "You'll not have this one running about, I'll wager. Of course, she's been in mourning half her life. T'was not complementary to a loud, raucous personality and it's changed her, make no doubt. Her trunk is coming now and the rest of the household belongings will be unloaded and sent on by courier. It was all arranged by the solicitors."

"Thank you. We have charge of her now," Darcy said. "The carriage is just beyond the gate. Shall we go?"

Bingley took Emmeline's hand in his own and led her away from the large vessel and toward her new life in England. He felt the tiny hand tremble. "How did you enjoy being on such a big ship, Emmeline?" he asked easily.

"Once I stopped being ill, it was not so bad," Emmeline answered. "But for the first few days it was not very fun at all."

"And you had your birthday on board, did you not?" he continued. "Did you celebrate in any special way?"

"Nurse said that it was not right to make merry when Papa was not cold in his grave," Emmeline replied. "She said that orphaned girls should not make merry at all as it was not their lot in life to be happy."

Darcy stopped in his tracks. There was a vast difference between being pragmatic and cruel. He did not believe the nurse knew one from the other.

"Let us hope to prove her very wrong," Darcy said as he lifted the child into the carriage. He felt Emmeline draw in a sharp breath as he did so. "What is wrong, Emmeline? Are you unwell?"

"No, Uncle," she replied with shaky words. "I will try not to cry next time."

"Next time what?" he asked.

"Next time I am beaten," she answered honestly. "I only cried a little bit this time."

Darcy felt his face flush hot and red with anger and he turned to find the nurse thinking she should be horsewhipped herself for having struck the child, but Bingley stood in his path and spoke very softly. "Let us take Emmeline home and attend her wounds. The issue can be attended to by the solicitors from whom she will need a recommendation for future employment."

Darcy turned and saw the child looking horrified, as though she had done something wrong, and he forced a smile to his lips. "Yes, let's take you home, Miss Emmeline, and have a doctor give you a looking over. Besides, your Aunts Elizabeth and Jane are very desirous to meet you. We should not wish to keep them waiting."

"They will want to start doting upon you as soon as they see you, I should think," Bingley added, keeping his tone light and friendly for the child's benefit. "For none of us have been fortunate enough to have any girls."

The carriage drove them directly to Darcy's home which was situated in one of the best parts of town; where the ladies anxiously awaited their return with their niece. Upon their arrival, Jane and Elizabeth looked out of the window from the parlour. Jane quickly returned to her place to await them but Elizabeth caught a look at her husband's dark countenance and knew something was amiss.

In their nearly fifteen years of marriage, she knew his look and manner as well as she knew her own. There was anger in his eyes and she could not conceive of anything a small child could do to put that look on his face. He'd been a most loving and indulgent parent when their own son, Bennet, was small and he'd been able to find some of the most trying escapades.

Bingley emerged second, carrying the sleeping girl in his arms. They made way into the house quickly and a flutter of voices carried into the parlour.

"Send for Doctor Roberts," Darcy instructed the butler as he handed off his hat and coat. Bingley continued his path toward the nursery without stopping to remove his things. Jane followed briskly behind.

"Charles, what is wrong?" she asked as he placed Emmeline on the small bed that had been made up for her. "Is she ill?"

"No, but we believe she may be injured," Charles said, darkly. "The nurse that brought her over was beating her."

"Heaven forbid!" Jane gasped. "Why?"

"I doubt there is any valid answer to that question, Jane," he replied. "Darcy is sending a letter to the solicitors who hired her once we know exactly what injuries she has inflicted on our niece. She fell asleep in the carriage on the way back."

"I'll take care of her," Jane said, removing Emmeline's bonnet and allowing her dark hair to fall loose. Bingley left to allow his wife to change the child's clothes and put her to bed.

Downstairs, Bingley quietly joined as Lizzy listened to her husband rant in the library over what he felt to be the greatest of injustices, the maltreatment of a child. Only rarely had he been in necessity of punishing their own son, Bennet, by way of a spanking and it always tormented him for days that he caused pain to their child. The child's pain and guilt of disobedience was assuaged far sooner than the father's.

"Fitzwilliam, you will hardly gain justice by losing your temper," Lizzie said gently. "And you have already sent a letter to the attorney's office to request that she be held in London until you meet with him."

"The child flinched at the barest touch, Elizabeth," he railed. "A spanking could not have inflicted that sort of pain... or rather it should not have. There can be no excuse."

Jane knocked on the library door and entered. "Emmeline is looked at by the doctor. She has many bruises on her back, legs and arms but Doctor Roberts does not believe that she has suffered any permanent damage. She was quite unable to tell us why she had been struck, only owning that the nurse told her that all orphans should expect to be beaten and the sooner she stopped acting like a great lady and accepted her fate; the better."

"Miserable woman!" Lizzy exclaimed. "Was it not bad enough she's lost the two people who should have loved her best?"

So it was that Miss Emmeline Wickham came to live with Fitzwiliam and Elizabeth Darcy.


	2. Chapter 2

"Bennet, come and look at this great mountain!" Emmeline called to her elder cousin in the hallway at the bottom of the main staircase.

At least, it was a staircase to anyone who was not five years old and in possession of a great imagination. To Emmeline Wickham, however, it was an adventure waiting to be started. For all the nurse's assertions that the child would not be one to run around, it took little encouragement from her fifteen year old cousin to show her lively personality. She enjoyed playing as much as any other child of her age and she was just as happy with mounting expeditions for treasure and outdoor play as she was with tea parties and dolls.

Rain had precluded any out of doors activities and her aunts had gone to call on Elizabeth's sister-in-law Georgiana so Emmeline had to content herself with pretending the great home in Grovenor Square was a labyrinth of unexplored worlds and her cousin was an ideal companion for the day as he had no friends to go visiting on this particular morning.

Bennet, who looked the image of his father but with the happy personality of his mother, indulged the newest resident fondly from nearly the moment he arrived home from Eton. His parents were quickly persuaded to believe that if anything were to happen to them, their son would not fail to care for his cousin as if she were his own sister. He seemed more than pleased to spoil her endlessly with his time and attention except for when duty called him to his father's side to learn the details of managing the Darcy estate and fortunes.

"How shall we conquer such a formidable landscape, Madam Adventurer?" he asked as he came into the hallway. "Shall we not be beset by marauders or even a Yeti?"

Emmeline pulled out a wrapped boiled sweet from her apron pocket and handed it to Bennet and declared, "We will have to make do with our supplies on hand and the rail can be used as a rope but we must reach the top and discover the treasure of Raja Baba before night falls!"

The pair paid no mind to the butler who had gone to answer the door while Emmeline climbed the first few stairs with Bennet followed and she was about to declare that they had made it to the first steppe without incident when she turned and suddenly became very quiet and the smile disappeared from her face entirely. She backed against the railing as a menacing tap, tap, tap came their way of a walking stick hitting the marble floor reached her ears. The object of her greatest fear looked severely down upon the child as the butler led her to the master's office.

Bennet looked at the miserable woman with a critical eye, understanding immediately her identity. "Emmy," he said quietly. "I think I must attend my father and Uncle Charles. May we conclude this expedition after dinner, perhaps?"

Emmeline nodded and took off at speed to her room. She spared only a moment to take hold of her beloved plush monkey before hiding under her bed. She began to sob at her own stupidity for being noisy and bothersome to her new family who had been so kind to her. She hugged the monkey closer as she cried in remorse.

Her uncle Fitzwilliam had Cheeky made for her the day after she arrived in England when she had spoken of the monkeys that often visited them in their garden in India. He had found it necessary to locate a picture of one from a book as he had never seen a real monkey before and a child's description was not quite sufficient enough to assist the toymaker in his work. He looked very much like the monkey who stole fruit and bread from the table when she and her father had tea in the garden.

Emmeline, as only a child can so adeptly manage, decided that she must have been very naughty indeed for her uncle to be angry enough to call Nurse to the house and now she was to be beaten, or even worse; taken away entirely, never again to be allowed the merriment she'd grown so fond of in these last three weeks. These thoughts only served to bring forth more sobs until the child exhausted herself and fell asleep still ensconced in the safety of the floor beneath her bed.

In the office, Fitzwilliam Darcy and Charles Bingley faced down Mrs. Chatsworth, who had come to find out why she had not received her customary letter of recommendation. Bennet entered only a moment after and no one had yet spoken. Darcy looked as livid as ever his son had seen him before and his uncle Charles looked hardly a titch calmer.

"I performed my duty in returning the orphaned child to her relations as I have done some dozen times before, Sir," Mrs. Chatsworth began, "I do not see why this was unacceptable enough to warrant no recommendation at all."

"You do not see that beating and tormenting a child of a mere four years while in your care is unworthy of recommending to others?" Fitzwilliam demanded. "My niece was covered in bruises that took a full two weeks to heal. Injuries that a doctor assures me were from no mere child's clumsiness as might be suggested by the one inflicting them."

"I only prepare these penniless waifs for the lifetime of hardship that awaits them at the hands of orphan asylums or genteel relatives who are disappointed to find that their parents have left them with little or no money to bring them up with," Mrs. Chatsworth replied.

"Who ever said my niece was penniless?" Charles asked. "As we understand it, her father's plantation was a thriving business."

"Perhaps it was," Chatsworth answered, "but it is doubtful that it should remain so once the lawyers have had their way with the books. I've seen this far too often for it to be mere coincidence. Men of gentle breeding know little of business affairs and are oftener misled by the unscrupulous than dealt a genuine assessment of matters. If you are very lucky, they may offer you a hundred pounds to take the 'worthless' estate from your hands and line their own pockets very handsomely."

"Be that as it may, Madam," Fitzwilliam returned to the earlier point. "To beat a child so savagely is an unconscionable act."

"I should rather a child be surprised by the kindness of her relatives than shocked at their brutality," Chatworth declared. "Whatever my actions, they will be soon forgot in the course of time spent with family."

"I doubt very much my cousin will forget your beatings and do not believe that I missed your look to her," Bennet interrupted. "You obviously dislike her for some reason which eludes the rest of us. Perhaps you would enlighten us?"

His father settled a look on the young man, but said nothing. Bennet generally was a quiet observer but this was a strange meeting entirely. He'd expected the woman to deny the beatings, to lay blame with a child's clumsy nature or disobedient willfulness but she did none of those things. She even gave them warning that the lawyers might try to cheat his little niece out of what is rightfully hers.

"In future, Madam, you would be better served and receive greater recommendations if you were to advise families taking in these orphaned children about the unscrupulous nature of the attorneys dealing with their estates rather than prepare them to be deceived and defrauded," Fitzwilliam said. "As it is, however, I cannot, in good conscience, offer you recommendation to another post. Perhaps you will have better luck with the solicitors."

With this, the meeting was concluded and Mrs. Chatsworth was shown to the door, still without recommendation and her look turned even more sour, if that had been at all possible. She supposed that she ought to have just allowed the solicitors to take their will of the money.

Once left to themselves, the gentlemen took a glass of port and Darcy included his son in this source of stress relief. Darcy turned and picked up a pen and paper to send a short letter to Mr. Gardiner to ask his guidance in settling the Wickham estate so that his niece would not be defrauded of her rightful inheritance.

The ladies returned from their excursions and went to the office where Elizabeth knew her husband could be found at this time of the day. Finding her son there as well, Elizabeth asked, "Where is Emmeline?"

"I believe she went toward her room when I came to Father," Bennet answered. "She was terrified of that nurse and I thought I ought to be in when she was attended."

"Did anyone look in on her?" Jane said setting her gloves on the table.

"No," Bingley admitted. "We were rather busy finding out what defense that woman had on the charge of cruelty toward our niece."

"Oh, Charles," Jane sighed. "Poor thing is probably distressed that the appearance of the nurse means something dreadful for her and left all to her own devices."

"We should have hired on a new nurse for her immediately," Fitzwilliam said. "So that she might have learnt sooner that not all creatures bearing such a title are to be feared. She speaks so warmly of that one from India, Ayah, I believe she was called."

"I think Ayah is the Indian equivalent of Nurse. A title rather than a name," Elizabeth suggested. "I shall go find Emmy and ensure she is all right."

"No," Fitzwilliam decided. "Let me, for I should have called for a servant to look after her before the meeting."

Fitzwilliam stood and the company departed with him and went to the parlor as he ascended the staircase to the family rooms. He knocked on the door to Emmeline's bedchamber but received no answer so he opened it and looked around the place. He could have never imagined a child that kept her things so tidy as his little niece. Her dolls were lined up very straight on the window seat and the toy chest closed with no hint of anything poking out. The bed stood neatly made which precluded any idea that the child might have come to her room for a nap but he had no idea where she might have gone.

The thought then dawned on him that when his son was of that tender age, he often sought out solace in the form of a lump of sugar or warm bun from the kitchens, to which he was generally not disappointed. Darcy closed the door and went to the servants' staircase and descended to the kitchen in search of his niece though she was still sleeping soundly beneath the very bed he gazed upon.

The kitchens were, of course, busy in preparing for their dinner when the master arrived and Mrs. Bonner stopped her work after instructing a subordinate to take over for her, wiped her hands on her apron and greeted Mr. Darcy.

"Is something amiss, Sir?" she asked.

"I was in search of Miss Emmeline," Fitzwilliam said. "I thought she might be down here wheedling sweets from the staff as balm to a fright she received earlier."

"We've not seen her hereabouts this morning, Sir," Mrs. Bonner replied. "Shall I have the men look around the house for her? Perhaps she got lost during her play or hid in her fright."

"Thank you, yes, Mrs. Bonner," Fitzwilliam nodded. "She may have taken to finding comfort in any unlikely place."

The calls from the men for Emmeline did not go unnoticed by the residents of the parlor and the family joined in searching for the littlest member of the family. They searched in every room of the house, including their own bedrooms in the event the child had taken refuge in any of them. They were all disappointed that she was not to be found when Elizabeth stopped suddenly with her husband.

"Did you, by chance, look beneath her bed when you went to look for her?" Elizabeth asked.

"No, why would I have?" Fitzwilliam replied.

Elizabeth laughed lightly. "Because it was the place where I took to hiding at her age when something upset me."

The Darcys returned to the room and Fitzwilliam got on his hands and knees to find Emmeline clutching her monkey to her with tears still on her cheeks. He took her by the foot and pulled her out which roused her.

"Whatever were you doing there?" he asked as he lifted her up into his arms.

"I didn't want her to get me," Emmeline replied drowsily. As if remembering all that she'd been thinking about before she exhausted herself, her eyes started to water. "I won't be loud or play anymore. Please don't send me away."

"Emmy," Elizabeth began, catching onto an idea that had been pecking at her. "Would you like us to find you another Ayah like the one you had in India since Nurses don't seem to suit you very well?"

While it would be a highly unusual circumstance for a proper English family in England to do so; it seemed to Elizabeth that their situation was already highly unusual and extraordinary measures needed taking.

"You aren't sending me to a horrible school or workhouse?" Emmeline asked, clutching her monkey as if it alone held all the hope of salvation in the world.

Fitzwilliam petted her dark curls and embraced her as Elizabeth joined them.

"We would not send you away, Emmeline," he said. "You are in our family now and that will never change, I promise you."

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**Author's Note: I hope you like this second chapter. **

**I know there was a desire to see the nurse transported, but historically speaking, she committed no crime in her behavior. The worst that could have happened was exactly what did. She had no recommendation though it was probably unlikely to stop her from receiving future employment.**


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